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Sunday, February 25, 2018

7: The Un-Wisdom Of Crowds

     I want to begin by apologizing to my readers for the unusual length of time between posts. My job search -- discussed in my 12/11/17 post ("Philosophers And Bathroom Attendants") -- is finally over, at least for the time being. I recently started a position as a contract lawyer, reviewing documents in a large antitrust case. In order to prepare myself for this project, which may last six months, I had to brush up on the basics of the rules of evidence (particularly relevancy and privileges), which I had not focused on since law school.
     But now back to Seneca. In the seventh letter to his friend Lucilius, Seneca relates a recent experience that deeply disturbed him. Apparently, he decided to the see the noontime show at an arena -- the Colosseum would not open until 80 AD/CE, 15 years after Seneca's death -- hoping for amusement. Instead, he found carnage. It seems that criminals were given lethal weapons and then ordered to fight to the death for the crowd's pleasure. Unlike gladiators, who typically fought with helmets and shields, the prisoners had no protective gear. As more blood flowed, the spectators became more excited and more blood-thirsty. Seneca told Lucilius:
          "Do you ask what you should avoid more than anything else? A crowd. It is not yet safe for you to trust yourself to one. ... [C]ontact with the many is harmful to us. Every single person urges some fault upon us, or imparts one to us, or contaminates us without our even realizing it. Without doubt, the larger the group we associate with, the greater the danger. Nothing, though, is as destructive to good character as occupying a seat in some public spectacle, for then the pleasure of the sight lets the faults slip in more easily. What do you suppose I mean? Do I come home greedier, more power-hungry, more self-indulgent? Worse than that! I become more cruel and inhumane, just because I have been among humans." 
     Seneca was not the first or the only classical Western thinker who had a low regard for the masses. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato -- to cite but one example -- never forgave the Athenians for voting to convict and then sentence to death his teacher Socrates in 399 BC/BCE. Seneca closes the letter with the following advice for Lucilius: "Direct your goods inward."
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     Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 7, 1-3, pages 34-35; see also 12, page 37. 
   

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